What’s French for LSE chairman may be turkey at Christmas?

Comment Martin Flanagan

Talk about a saunter into the sunset becoming a firestorm… when it was announced last month that Xavier Rolet was departing the London Stock Exchange after a highly successful tenure as chief executive all appeared sweetness and light.

True, people pointed out the blot on the Frenchman’s copybook from not being able to pull off the £21 billion merger with the Frankfurt exchange due to European Union antitrust objections. But the general tenor of commentary was that the latter was dwarfed by Rolet’s achievements in his nine years at the helm of the London exchange, shaking it up and giving it strategic heft. The general feeling was that the latter deserved his generous payoff and more time to spend with his vineyards.

But, out of left-field, an influential LSE investor, The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI), which holds 5 per cent of the exchange, has requisitioned a meeting of shareholders on whether to force the removal of chairman Donald Brydon and allow Rolet to stay on.

Brydon has, in effect, been accused by TCI of pushing out Rolet, who is currently expected to leave the LSE next year. LSE, which confirmed the meeting yesterday, is now preparing to publish a circular to shareholders providing them with details of TCI’S grievances.

Christopher Hohn, investment manager of TCI, has said in a published letter to Brydon: “You have failed to provide shareholders with any substantive basis for the removal of the chief executive.”

TCI claims confidentiality agreements relating to Rolet’s departure are symptomatic of shoddy corporate governance at the LSE.

Talk about a play within a play.